NFER blog: Special School Teachers: Where do they come from? Where do they go?

NFER has published the second in a two-part blog series, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, that looks at the workforce in special schools in England.   

This blog looks at the dynamics of teachers in special schools. How does the leaving rate compare to the wider sector? When teachers join special schools, where do they come from? How important is initial teacher training (ITT) as a source of teachers to special schools, and is it serving this part of the sector well?   

The research finds that: 

• Special schools do not recruit their teaching staff directly from ITT routes as much as primary and secondary schools, suggesting more could be done within the existing ITT system to improve the flow of trainees into special schools.  

• The Department for Education does not have a target for ITT recruitment for special schools, nor do existing targets explicitly account for the needs of special schools.  

• The current system seems to rely on teachers developing experience with SEND pupils in the mainstream sector before moving to special schools.  

• Special schools have lower teacher turnover rates than other schools. Given that high turnover has been linked to poor job satisfaction and puts pressure on schools to recruit more teachers, this is encouraging.  

• However, Alternative Provision settings have much higher teacher turnover rates than other schools, and these teachers are also more likely to leave the state system each year. This is clearly a concern.  

• When teachers leave special schools, they are more likely to leave the state system than teachers who leave primary or secondary schools. While this could be due to data limitations, supporting more of these teachers to stay in the system could be a useful way of sharing SEND expertise with mainstream settings as the number of pupils with SEND continues to increase. 

Commenting on the research, Michael Scott, Senior Economist at NFER and the blog's author, said: 

“Special schools and their teachers are a vital part of the education landscape in England.  

“Given the challenge special schools face recruiting enough teachers, it is surprising that the Department for Education does not directly account for the workforce needs of special schools in ITT recruitment targets, nor the flow of teachers from ITT routes into special schools when calculating those targets. It should do so going forward.” 

The first blog looked at the workforce in state-funded special schools, teacher vacancy rates and data about teachers with qualified teacher status (QTS).